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Spring 2010 Marco Valtorta mgv@cse.sc

CSCE 390 Professional Issues in Computer Science and Engineering Ch.3: Philosophic Belief Systems, part I: Idealism and Realism. Spring 2010 Marco Valtorta mgv@cse.sc.edu. Why?. We accept that we need ethical standards What are the sources of such standards?

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Spring 2010 Marco Valtorta mgv@cse.sc

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  1. CSCE 390Professional Issues in Computer Science and EngineeringCh.3: Philosophic Belief Systems, part I: Idealism and Realism Spring 2010 Marco Valtorta mgv@cse.sc.edu

  2. Why? • We accept that we need ethical standards • What are the sources of such standards? • Our ethical standards are affected, or even determined, by out worldview (weltanschauung, in German) • In philosophy, the study of the basic meaning of reality is called metaphysics • Metaphysics means “after” or “beyond” physics

  3. Philosophic Belief Systems • Belief: unproven assumption • Philosophic: about truth • Philia = love • Sophia = truth • System: consists of related parts • Metaphysics • Epistemology • The study of how we know things • Episteme = knowledge • Logos • Axiology • Ethics • Aesthetics

  4. The School of Athens, Raphael, 1511

  5. Idealism vs. Realism Plato (in the likeness of Leonardo da Vinci) Aristotle (in the likeness of Michelangelo Buonarroti)

  6. Idealist Metaphysics • Socrates (470-399BC) and Plato (427-327) • The parable of the cave • Ultimate reality can not be found in the world of sensory experience, but only in the world of ideas, which only our minds can experience

  7. Idealist Epistemology • The process of knowing is abstract • We use reason to help our mind grasp the ideas that underlie the reality experienced by our senses

  8. Idealist Ethics • Goodness is found in the ideal, i.e., in perfection • Perfection is not found in material things • Goodness is conformance to the unchanging, ever-perfect, incorruptible ideal • Moral imperatives • No exceptions • But… the lesser of two evils

  9. Immanuel Kant (German, 1724-1804) • A non-religious idealist • Moral imperatives • “Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a univeral law” • “Act as to treat humanity, whether in your own person or in that of another, always as an end and not as a means only” • Do something simply because it is good, not because of what may come of it

  10. Realist Metaphysics • Aristotle, 384BC-322BC • Things are more real than ideas • Whatever exists, exists independently from any mind and is governed by the laws of nature • John Searle (1932-) • Marvin Minsky (1927-) Minsky

  11. Realist Epistemology • Knowledge is acquired through the senses • Science is more important than reason

  12. Realist Ethics • The criterion of goodness is conformity with reality • What is natural is good • Evil is the departure from the natural norm either by excess or defect • Evil is a breaking of the natural law

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